The plans, put forward by Plesvale Ltd, have been handed into Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, with a decision on approval or rejection of the move due at the planning committee meeting next Tuesday

The figures were released as a result of a Freedom of Information request

Planning appeals have cost Hinckley and Bosworth taxpayers more than a quarter of a million pounds over the past five years.

The figures were released as a result of a Freedom of Information request from Earl Shilton councillor Denis Bown.

He asked about costs awarded against the borough council when planning committee members had rejected applications contrary to officer advice as well as when following officer guidance. Consultation fees were also queried.

The biggest bills came in 2010-11 largely due to the appeal decision on the former Greyhound Stadium on Nutts Lane, Hinckley which topped £72,000 and this past financial year 2013-14 with a total of £71,689.

Costs incurred when appeals followed the support of officer recommended refusal were considerably lower overall.

According to a recent council scrutiny commission report during the first six months of 2014 there were nine appeal decisions, five of which were allowed and four dismissed.

Of the five allowed, four were recommended for approval by officers but got turned down by planning committee members.

These included high profile and controversial housing applications for land at Paddock Way, off Coventry Road, Hinckley (10 homes), Three Pots Road, Burbage (34 homes) and Workhouse Lane, Burbage (35 homes) all schemes which had prompted concern and objections from local residents - views taken on board by councillors in rejecting them.

However, as the council does not yet have an official, up-to-date, sustainable five year housing allocation plan, developers are able to use Government guidelines to push through projects on appeal.

It has left many councillors frustrated at the lack of local autonomy and inadequate community payback in terms of infrastructure improvements to balance unwanted new estates.

“In Higham on the Hill permission has been granted for 43 houses with minimum benefit to the village and no improvements to road structure.

“The village is quite correctly outraged as part of this development was on green belt land and had not been identified by planning officers as a preferred site.”

He added the council’s core strategy, adopted in 2009, identified a requirement of 40 new homes for Higham and 60 for Stoke Golding and while this quota has been met the additional needs of the villages have not been forthcoming.

According to a council spokesman the difficulty lay in changes to planning policy from Whitehall. The spokesman explained the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in 2012 removed all previous guidance and introduced a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’.

Major changes were also made to the way the council has to assess housing need and housing targets were pushed up - to ensure choice and competition in the market for land. All of this turned the local strategy on its head.

The spokesman added work was ongoing on a site allocations development plan, as part of the NPFF requirements but this had to go to the Secretary of State for Examination in public and until then the locally adopted housing supply policy didn’t count.

“At present, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council is in a position where it is unable to demonstrate a five year housing land supply against its adopted target of 450 new homes a year for the period 2006 to 2026.”

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